Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (OYO)

Ombetja uses art to create awareness about HIV/AIDS amongst young people in schools as well as out-of-school youth. Through a participatory process, teachers and learners are sensitised about HIV/AIDS, as well as to the need for care and support of those affected. The programme encourages students to form clubs that devote time to writing songs, dramas, and poems about HIV in order to reach other youth. The groups also produce short video films using students as actors.

Ombetja Yehinga comprises of the following components:

• Working with young people: Young people are engaged in creative art work that promotes the discussion and understanding of sexual health and other social issues. This entails setting up and supporting HIV/ AIDS Awareness Clubs for young people in schools and Youth Groups for out-of-school youth; publishing the national magazine, “OYO, Young, Latest and Cool”, which is written mostly by young people for young people, and distributed free of charge in schools; and organising regional tours of OYO youth group productions and a national tour every September.
• Special projects: The organisation runs national and international projects to emphasise the creative arts, youth participation, gender equality, human rights, and issues surrounding HIV and AIDS. These have included films, books, exhibitions, theatre productions, and cultural exchanges.
• Training teachers on HIV transmission, prevention, testing and treatment: Ombetja works with teachers and school managers and publish teacher-training manuals to ensure HIV/AIDS education in schools.
• Researching sexuality and culturo-sexual practices: this involves anthropological research with a view to developing appropriate tools for communities to respond to HIV and AIDS.

One of Ombetja Yehinga’s first projects was a writing competition for young people. According to the organisers, the response during this competition revealed that young people were taking up the message about HIV and AIDS and showing a genuine interest in the arts. The winning entries were adapted for the screen and made into a collection of five short films around the subject of HIV and AIDS, entitled Love Can Cry.

Other Ombetja activities include:

• A bi-monthly newsletter Ombetja Yehinga
• a show called The Hyena's Disease, which was produced in Windhoek in March 2002 and performed throughout Oshakati in June 2002, as well as a documentary prepared with NBC of the same title; and
• book projects published by Gamsberg MacMillan, including The Hyena's Disease (featuring photos and poems by students) and Challenging the Namibian Perception of Sexuality: A Case Study of the Ovahimba and Ovaherero Culturo-sexual Models in Kunene North in an HIV/AIDS context .

Youth, Children, HIV/AIDS

Ombetja came about in 2001 after a group of teachers put forward a request to the Kunene Regional Council asking for help in finding new and engaging ways to convey information about HIV and AIDS to young people. The widespread feeling was that conventional teaching methods were making little impact on learners and that a more creative response was needed. The council responded by setting up a programme called Ombetja Yehinga as part of the Regional HIV and AIDS Co-ordinating Committee (RACOC).

The African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (AfriComNet) 2009 Chairman’s Award was presented to the Director of Ombetja Yehinga Organisation, Dr. Philippe Talavera.